Perplexed looking for a guide

Wednesday Jun 18, 2008

Ubuntu

No, this isn't a posting about Linux, this about the Boston Celtics, the new National Basketball Association champions! But, also about what we can learn from them. Now that the championship is over, everyone knows about the Celtics' phenomenal turn around---from the worst record in basketball to the Champions. While the new talent acquired last summer (Garnett and Allen) was important, adding a few more individual superstars to a team does not make them champions. They were able rise to this level and to beat the team with the "greatest player on the planet" by working and winning as a team, by focusing not on their personal appearances on highlight films, but on how to raise the level of their teammates and celebrate their successes.

Desmond Tutu has said, "A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed." Introduced to this ethic by Doc Rivers, this team has Ubuntu. While they have stars, it is their selfless play that has made them great. This could not have been made clearer than watching their defense, where as the Lakers moved the ball, the defense moved and swarmed as a unit. How else can you double team everyone on the floor?

This is essence of "Systemness". How well the components work together, how seamlessly they integrate makes a collection of components a cohesive, powerful system. But even this is not Ubuntu. How can each component make the other components better, perhaps even by diminishing their own performance. How can the synergistic integration of the components give the System an unfair advantage? This is question Systemness asks. And if the components have Ubuntu, this is the question with which the component designers and architects begin. And engineering teams with Ubuntu ask this of themselves and celebrate the successes of other teams, for the betterment of the whole, the System and the company, will lead to their own success.

Posted at 09:38AM Jun 18, 2008 by rezippel in Sports | Comments[1]

Saturday Sep 29, 2007

Red Sox Clinch!

I came to Boston for college so long ago, locals remembered Ted Williams' rookie year. I lived in Kenmore Square as an undergraduate and I spent my summers either sailing, watching Red Sox games from $0.50 bleacher seats (that's not a typo), sailing on the Charles, or learning a little computer science across the river. So, in my bones I know the Red Sox are always going to raise your hopes in the summer and dash them on the rocks in September, or October if we were lucky. I was one of those that willed Carlton Fiske's home run to the right of the foul pole in game six of the 1975 World Series.

2004 was exhilarating and felt like the beginning of a new era, even though the management traded away some of the heroes. This year was amazing, the Red Sox (finally) had pitching, they ran, and while their hitting was OK, it wasn't the dominating hitting they had in 2004. This sounded good. But then a 12 game lead evaporated, and the Yankees swept the final series.

But is sure was sweet for them to clinch because Mariano Rivera gave up three runs and Orioles pulling off a bases loaded bunt! Hal, I feel your pain about the Yankees. That too shall pass, perhaps in 86 years.

Posted at 03:28AM Sep 29, 2007 by rezippel in Sports | Comments[1]